A LLOYD ‘I WAS THERE’ MANGRAM 1988 PRODUCTION

What was like it? Was it a tremendous success or a massive flop?
Having moved from Olympia to the much bigger Earls Court centre, something
about the show had to be massive, didn’t it? Well on Friday, the 14th, the
first day open to the public, it looked rather like a massive flop. The huge
stands, arranged in a maze Magnetic Scrolls could’ve been proud of, were for
the most part rather empty. What visitors there were wandered rather aimlessly
through the leisure side, dwarfed by the brash stands erected for them. Things
picked up towards the end of the day, but perhaps because of the postal strike
(causing difficulties for those who wished to reserve tickets in advance) and
it being a school day, attendance seemed low (although the Show organisers,
Montbuild, insisted that it was yet another record-breaking attendance — which
I find very hard to believe). But if it was all going to be all quiet on
the PC Front over the weekend I, for one, would’ve been relieved — after trekking
all around the Show on Friday my feet were raw.

Press room with a view

On Saturday the floodgates opened and Earls Court was swamped. Journeys to
see the ever-friendly software people (now, understandably due to the poor
organisation of stand facilities and equipment, getting rather ratty) required
strategic planning to avoid crammed thoroughfares. The queue for the
MicroProse Super X simulator seemed to snake everywhere, with signs
along its entire route encouraging people to jump the queue by buying
MicroProse software from Evesham Micro. When I (eventually) got inside the
Super X Prokon sim I was a little disappointed. After all the hype the quality
of the picture seemed a little blurry, like a mediocre quality TV picture, but
blown-up. The video technology was used to merge together a space shuttle
launch (strangely from an external view), and first perspective views of a
Tron-like computer graphics trip, taking part in a motorcycle race and a car
rally among others. The latter two were among the most impressive and what
worked really well was the feeling of acceleration. Logically, you could figure
out that this feeling was produced by the simulator tilting backwards, but when
the motorcycle lurched across the start line you almost felt you were
there.

The Editor finds a certain well-known programmer (not
dissimilar to Raf Cecco) running off with another CRASH T-shirt

Another American-orientated stand was The Big Apple’s, this cardboard
Manhattan trembled to the sound of American rock, while pretty young women
handed out promotional leaflets. Prior to the Show the company had promised
women dressed as raisins to promote one of the most esoteric (LMLWD) licences
ever — a game based on an American raisin ad (very suitable for a UK market, I
thought). On my tour around the stand the girls didn’t look that
wrinkle-skinned, but perhaps my eyesight isn’t what it once was...

Everyone was reading CRASH down at the Show!

Yet another shining example of Anglo-American relations was provided by
Domark’s stand which included a life-size, mechanical Spitting
Image puppet of Mrs Thatcher, along with a double-decker bus driven by a
latex Rambo! This weird setting was the scene of much celebration as Domark
signed a deal with Atari Games, the American coin-op makers now unconnected
with Atari computers. To avoid confusion with the latter, Atari Games home
computer conversions are labelled Tengen. Part of the deal will involve
publicising the Tengen name for people, like me, who hadn’t noticed the tiny
Tengen credit on the back of another Atari Games coin-op conversion, The
Empire Strikes Back.

Domark’s deal with Atari Games is for the unusually long period of three
years and is expected to include around twenty titles. Included among these
will be Toobin’ (the coin-op was reviewed last issue) and
Vindicators, a battle of futuristic, customised tanks — a sort of
cross between Battlezone and Xybots. These should be available sometime next
year.

Smile! You’re on Cameron’s camera

Such amicable feelings were notably absent from the Mirrorsoft stand,
where a life-size fox was seen strutting around toting nothing less than an
M-16 machine gun! If RoboCop had been able to make an arrest no doubt the
violent vermin would have protested centuries of relentless hounding as just
cause. And, of course, the media were there to glorify the violence. Indeed
Mirrorsoft had already got a game called Foxx Fights Back ready for
release. Mirrorsoft PR spokesperson Cathy Campos offered nothing in her
defence except a review copy, which we, of course, refused on principle. (See
page 91 — Ed.)

Dinamic!

And of course where there’s violence, albeit of slightly tongue-in-cheek
type, no doubt there’s sex too. In the case of the PC Show this was provided
not by Corinne Vixen Russell, but by some mini-skirted US Gold girls
(arh, they were so sweet — Ed) and — inevitably — the Dinamic stand.
Regular readers will no doubt remember the furore surrounding Dinamic’s
original Game Over almost exactly a year ago (Issues 43 and 44). The
notorious advert featured a certain scantily-clad lady whose virtue, or
something, was protected by Oli and his airbrush. (Who could ever accuse Oli
of corrupting young minds?)

The appearance of the sequel at this year’s PC Show meant that again Dinamic
posters were the show’s most sought after (although Anco’s Strip Poker
II posters seemed fairly popular). This year they were bigger, and
promoted by a young lady in a modest black dress and Flash Gordon-style golden
shoulder pads. Suitably intimidated visitors respectfully asked for posters,
while elsewhere their behaviour was more like a horde of locusts, grabbing
leaflets, posters and CRASH bags in a ravenous blur.

Just in case anyone said anything horrid about his new baby,
Ocean’s Gary Bracey parked the family car on the stand!

Naturally the biggest stands suffered most, and one of the most impressive
of these was once again Ocean’s. Nevertheless they seemed to have taken
security a little too far — with RoboCop and an armoured car on the stand. Gary
Bracey (Software Manager) rather feebly protested that these were, in fact,
promotional gimmicks, slapping an Operation Wolf sticker on the
armoured car — the locusts seemed little deterred. Gary couldn’t be depressed,
however, since his wife had just had a baby boy whom everyone congratulated him
on. To celebrate, Gary intended taking the following week off, but Ocean’s
programmers are unlikely to get any such rest with many of the stand’s
free-play arcade machines set for imminent conversion. One of the most popular
of these was Data East’s RoboCop. The computer version still
unfinished, it showed the section on this month’s cover mount and was
particularly impressive for the characterization and animation brilliantly
replicated on the Spectrum. Also looking somewhat unfinished was Ocean’s
RoboCop stand-in, with an odd piece of string protruding from his armour.
RoboCop spent some time arresting and shooting the visitor-locusts, but soon
had to retire due to severe over-heating problems. Disappointed film buffs
could console themselves with clips from Rambo II and the fabulous
The Untouchables, more Ocean licences. (In fact the Editor was seen
spending almost two hours trying to watch each of the films over the heads of
bobbing ‘I’ve taken a wrong turn here somewhere?’ business men.)

Another stand loaded with free-play arcade machines was Rebel’s. The
label had only just been launched at the show and conversions of their licences
are not due till ‘sometime’ next year. How they plan to convert the spectacular
3-D race game Continental Circus to home micros they weren’t saying,
but the bandanna things they were handing out proved very popular among those
who could tear themselves away from the arcade machines. I had a cursory look
around and found the games very impressive, but during public hours the
visitors made it impossible to play them, while after hours a horde of
reviewers acted similarly...

Newsfield’s Mel Croucher looking decidedly normal!

One area I made sure to stay away from was the huge Newsfield stand. Our
biggest yet, it was complete with the Computer Art Exhibition and a lounging
area at the front. The centre of the action, however, was the sales stand where
Directors, Editors and reviewers struggled alongside admin people to serve the
maddening hordes. Since only the latter had a clue how to operate the hi-tech
till, things were hectic to say the least. But by Sunday, CRASH, ZZAP!64 and
THE GAMES MACHINE had all sold out and we were reduced to making humble
apologies.

Superman meets THE GAMES MACHINE’s Mercy Dash

One person who apparently had no rest was Nick Roberts who was signing
almost as much stuff as Oli — whose posters were selling like nobody’s
business. When Nick was absent for the occasional, much-needed lunch break
other CRASH staff were often reduced to signing autographs with ‘friend of Nick
Roberts’ in brackets underneath. At least all the adulation helped him recover
from his encounter with TGM’s Mercy Dash. This Mel Croucher/Robert Evans
cartoon character, made real for the show by Helen Rothschild, was equipped
with a fairly resilient plastic bottle. This she used to bash all and sundry
over the head with. Still, Mercy has her soft side too, and it was she who
started the liberal handing out of Olibugs to anyone who asked. From then on
everyone was asking for them, from toddlers to people older than even me.
(Please can I have one for the wife of my aunty’s brother’s sister-in-law?
She’s in hospital, you know. And she reads CRASH every month! ... And perhaps
one for her youngest son?) By the end of the Show there were enough empty bug
bottles to make Mel Croucher wonder if Mercy hadn’t been on the sauce
again.

Even GO!’s Dave Baxter could raise a smile at the PC Show

At least half of the bugs, I was informed, were used by the ZZAP!64 people
as a kind of weird self-ornamentation. One Scouse reviewer virtually
disappeared under a mass of the fantastic furry fluff balls. Trying to keep a
more sober appearance was Mark Caswell. He watched over the fast disappearing
CRASH back issues while wishing Jon Bates’s soundtrack for the Art Exhibition
sounded more like James Brown. His white shirt alone seemed immune to the
latest outbreak of Sticker Wars, with Oli in particularly adept at slapping
Newsfield ‘Game Grabber’ stickers over any, lesser, magazines’ wimpy little
efforts.

Trying to keep aloof from such activity was Dominic Handy, who sat at the
front of the stand with one of the Show’s most satisfied grins as he sold
copies of the latest CRASH, occasionally assuring excited customers that this
was the best magazine they could buy. ZZAP!64 and TGM staff muttered in
disagreement now and then. In general the new stand, like the Show itself, was
rated a great success — even if no-one has a clue how to top this stand next
year. As for me, well I preferred the cool surroundings of the Press Rooms, a
drink and a bowl of cold water for my aching feet.

MicroProse’s ‘Wild Bill’ Stealy (left) and Stuart Bell smile
as the crowds gleefully await a little go on the simulator

THE NATIONAL COMPUTER GAMES CHAMPIONSHIPS

What I couldn’t miss attending, however, was the final of
National Computer Championships. The competition as a whole was organised by
Newsfield in association with The National Association Of Boys’ Clubs.
Sponsorship was provided by the ever-generous US Gold, on behalf of the
Personal Computer Show. (Right, credits out of the way and on with the
reporting...) The attempt to find the country’s top games player began in
April, with the first regional heats held on May 14. The competition took in
such exotic locations as Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds and even a platform of
Waterloo Station. At each place there were in fact two competitions, one for
Spectrum owners and one for Commodore 64/128 bods. The various stages of this
ambitious competition were naturally reported in CRASH, with the semi-finals in
August ultimately producing the finalists.

On the Spectrum they were ... Stuart Campbell from West Lothian; Paul
Roberts from Sheffield; Paul Burridge from Wheatley in Oxon; Michael Deer from
Swansea; Steven Smithwhite from West Lothian and finally Mark Sivill from
Newent in Gloucestershire. And on the Commodore... Mark Young from Fife;
Michael Bonham from Nuneaton; Glen Pickersgill from Hull; Neil White from
Edinburgh; Jeffrey Lane from Herts and last, but by no means least, Stuart
Witts from Swindon. The finals were held over the three public days of the
show, September 16,17 and 18.

The US Gold game provided for the final (on both the Spectrum and Commodore
formats) was Roadblasters (84%, Issue 55), a fast and furious racing
and blasting game that requires a steady nerve and a very itchy trigger finger.
The contestants were asked to play four ten-minute games each (over the course
of three days), with the final scores being a total of these four games. Of
course this being the PC Show the hall was packed, but some ingenious mind in
the Pepsi-Cola camp came up with the brilliant idea of covering a wall with
huge video screens (something like the type found at pop concerts). It really
only needed a TV company present to record the event for posterity, and enough
said, LWT were pressed into service. And so the contest began.

It was a hard fought battle, all of the combatants were determined to win,
but at the end of the day there could only be one winner on each computer. The
Spectrum winner turned out to be a very capable Stuart Campbell, and on the
Commodore ... 14-year-old Mark Young. They both received £1000 worth of
software/hardware for their trouble. (Can’t be a bad thing, I thought. I must
dust off my old Spectrum one of these days, I’ll be entering next year for
sure!)

Before they could think of spending any of it, however, an invitation was
extended by Pepsi for the Spectrum and Commodore winners to have a brief,
play-off ‘final’. To ensure impartiality it was held on Atari STs, with the
then-unseen Mad Mix Game
— the first Pepsi Challenge computer game (the Spectrum version is reviewed on
page 86.) It was a tough battle, but Mark narrowly pipped Stuart to the post,
28000 points to 20000. Both players won various Pepsi-Cola goodies, and Mark
Young left with the title of 1988 Pepsi Challenge Champion. Congratulations to
both winners.

Now that’s what I call a haircut! The way ahead for Spectrum champions?